[Julie Heller]

In answer to your questions –
Yes to names of folks who specialize in gut biome. Calm Care might have made a bit of an improvement but not much. The ferapet calming powder I tried next was about the same. Something is clearly off there.

Checking in
I need to remember to balance the tossing treats with letting her check in. Right now it’s more heavily weighted to pattern games/tossing treats because I don’t want her to rehearse tipping over into charging at something moving.

Carrying in
Yup – and I’ve done that but I’m also trying not to use that as a crutch. Because if she can’t walk into the ring, see something and be able to dismiss it and refocus to me, then I worry about the hypervigilence spilling over into when she is runnning a sequence. It hasn’t yet, but I don’t feel like I want to push it much.

Super bowls
We’ve done that at home and at Fusion. I tend to do the variation of the mini snuffle mat (dusting mop things) on either side of me by the ring or in the aisleway because it takes up less space and is easy for me to drop the 2 mitts down. She can do that within 5ft of the ring barrier while Kristen & Reacher are running.

Recalls past another walking dog
I”ll ask Kristen to play the part of the other team with Kaladin. Reacher and Lift have complicated feelings towards each other (aka – I think each might like to take the other out if the circumstances were just right).
I can also probably do this with another dog(s) in her Thursday class. (Elizabeth and Rocky are in there for instance) And I can also have her do this past walking people (without dogs).

[Julie Heller]

Thx for the feedback!
I’m pretty proud of her teeter. The a-frame & DW are going no-where with winter and all but we do have a great teeter.
I don’t know why my arm keeps floating up so much…I haven’t noticed it up that much with previous dogs but maybe they were just more tolerant of it floating around up there.

I’m sure she’d love 5-6 meatball chunks, but that would also probably make her sick. We’ve been tweaking her treats (her meatballs are now made with no oil – i used to put a tiny bit on my hands when rolling them just to unstick them from my hands a bit) and using Pro-Pectalin if she is at a trial or seminar. Sometimes she still gets sick the next day even with getting very small amounts of meatballs and other treats. It’s super frustrating that food helps settle her but also can very easily make her sick.

>>When she is watching dogs in the ring, can she walk around and ‘check in’ with you by looking at you, without a pattern game in progress?
Sometimes – depends on how exciting the environment is, how much brain juice she has, distance from the motion, etc.

>>What would she do if you took off the leash and lined her up in that moment?
75% chance that she would have lined up but maybe with some delay/25% that she might have started towards Leanne to monitor what she was doing.
You can see at about 1:00 in her first class video where she starts on a path towards Leanne hustling to get out of our path but she corrects after a stride or two and focuses back in on the jump on the pole.

>>Also, what was the rate of success in the session? Had there been bloopers where you stopped running? Any stop of flow can be interpreted as a failure from the dog, even if you give her a cookie. So if there were failures and the challenge of ignoring motion, it might have piled up into frustration.

That was actually her first sequence in that turn. And in the previous turn the only “blooper” was when she started to come off the tunnel-tunnel line. It was actually a remarkably successful night for sequence success until the major madz at the toy toss that you saw.

Would love some flyball/motion games for her. She definitely needs that for her “agility job” and her job of being able to function in an agility environment or other environment where motion happens (like life in general!)
We have class on Thursday night with Christina Wessel. Ring time on Sat & Sunday and at least one of those times Kristin & Reacher will be there.

Here are some recent videos from training with Kristen
2/21/26 – This was after Lift’s first turn. I noticed she was really focused on Kristen who was starting to walk the course so used it as an opportunity to work on it. There’s the initial outburst (right after I had turned on the video) and then she is able to focus on pattern games and some tricks.

2/28/26 – Ring time with Kristen a week later. Definitely keeping an eye on Kristen walking around, but more settled about it. She was also more settled in general that day with a quiet decompression walk the day before (I drove her & Kaladin to some quieter trails in the morning to avoid annoying barking dogs in yards that we had encountered earlier in the week along the trail closer to home). She also had a lazy morning while Kaladin and I were at the USDAA trial.

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Wk 2 – Get Out Sequences – 3/6/26
Hope your trialing went well today!

This was from last Friday morning’s ring rental.

Kaladin
I combined his 2 sessions into 1 video. Apparently it’s hard not to flap the get out arm but he read my mind and kept getting out to the jump. He was also very nice about staying out on the backside wrap despite the giraffe arm. The get-out to the threadle wrap didn’t go well. Are threadle wraps in wk 4? We need help there.

Lift

And Lift needs help with theadle slices. I skipped the option in the sequences that had one because I knew her head would explode. Unfortunately I seem to have accidentally deleted the video of her Get out sequences from last Friday in my never ending quest to free up more space on my phone. Thought I had already edited and posted on youtube plus moved the video off OneDrive but apparently not. And I don’t remember specifics other than that she did great balancing the get out with the go straight out of the tunnel and she did the get out to backside wrap pretty well. Sometime went sideways too and I honestly can’t remember what!

So enjoy this clip from Lift’s class last Tuesday where we got to use exit line arms on a backside slice and where we maybe should have used a get out for tunnel-tunnel the first time. I rushed my walk and missed that the line there was actually cutting in a bit due to the left lead through the first tunnel and that she needed to switch back to the right for the 2nd tunnel. We got it the 2nd time with me being better about the connection between the tunnels.

Also -I’m noticing the questioning bark she had approaching the 180 on the 2nd rep (about 1:18). Was I turning towards the jump a bit too soon and closing off the connection to her as I was thinking about getting across the jump after it for the backside slice?

And yes, she is definitely getting faster and showing some amazing skills when the stars all align (or mostly align). Unfortunately we’re also still struggling with handling arousal levels around motion which usually shows up as challenges on being able to function while getting into the ring in many situations (certainly trials which is why we haven’t been doing much of that lately, sometimes seminars & classes, but I can work on it better in those since we can pattern game with food around the area or into the ring).

Then on her 2nd turn in class last Tuesday, she had a meltdown at the end of the sequence when she missed/chose not to go for her lotus ball when I threw it with a “get it”. This is something I hadn’t seen from her before…and it was after she did so well going into the ring (without being carried) on her first turn. She also went in on her own power for the 2nd turn as the previous dog was leaving from the other side. I waited a bit longer on the start line because she kept flicking her gaze over to Leanne who was moving a little bit. Then she refocused on me so we started. Maybe all that was just too much for her brain? I think I should have done a treat scatter or something involving food to interrupt the angry boinging, but my brain just shut off. Once she settled enough to approach me and I could touch her, she just melted into me. Touch definitely helps re-ground her, but if she’s too far gone, she won’t choose to be touched.

I’m pulling together some videos of examples of when she lunges at motion. It feels like she’s still struggling with adolescent lizard brain moments (she will be 3 at the end of June) so part of me says to just wait it out and let her grow up more, but I also don’t want her rehearsing undesirable behavior.

[Julie Heller]

Lift & Kaladin – Wk 2 – Get Out on 1 jump- 3/4/26
What a week! Work blew up (in a mostly good & exciting way), the Midwest Classic opened on Wed at 8AM and we had a waitlist for SS Challenge by the end of the day, and I realized the yard had melted enough for me to try the 1 jump Get out work outside. So Yay!

Of course it is still rather soggy in spots so Lift’s lotus ball ended up in a pile of melting snow under the deck stairs on the first toss, but luckily we rescued it and the treat was intact.

Will circle back on your latest comments later, but wanted to get these videos in incase you were doing feedback later in the day. I have ring time tomorrow morning and had questions on the Get out mechanics.

Lift
Realized after I finished that I should have been wrapping her the other way around the wing so that she was on the lead closest to me and needing to switch leads on the get out. Whoops!

Also – how do you throw the reward with your opposite arm if you are not supposed to be flapping it? If I throw it on the first arm movement isn’t that a bit of a lure?

Kaladin

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin is happy to report that his hooman managed to keep her dog-side arm down lower at the USDAA trial on Sunday so he didn’t get confused. I even started to raise it to cue tunnel to DW in the gamble and then remembered to drop it down so that he continued on his line to the DW. I think he probably would have cut in to me (through the weaves I had to layer) if I had left it up higher. (just like a friend of mine did with his Sheltie running after us).

Lift – Exit Lines & Brake Arms – 2/28/26

Lift got to laze around at home on Saturday morning when Kaladin & I were at the USDAA trial at OTR and then she had her turn at Fusion in the afternoon. And I’m running in socks because I left my agility shoes at OTR (like I often do for a 2 day trial) and forgot to grab my backup pair when I went home to swap dogs (because I usually leave my shoes in Lift’s crate in the car…)

Turn 1 – The bar on the ground caught her attention and she ended up shooting around the back of the tunnel (looking very proud of herself as she reappeared on the other side). Used an exit arm the 2nd time and that helped her get the tunnel.
I ran deeper into the tunnel pocket to prevent that reverse transition thing on the RC and it worked better. I think she shot a bit wide looking at the wings we had across the end of the dogwalk (it was a day for visual clutter for sure!)
Totally late on the opposite arm for the backside wrap around 0:57.
I think she’s trying out for the half pipe free style around 1:13…it seemed like a good time to throw in a fun go at the end of that one.
Next 2 reps suffered from disconnection (bit hard to tell with the camera angle but I’m seeing my inside arm in line with my body or a bit ahead but not behind.) And then she almost did a headstand to get a treat that was lying on the floor…
I”m not sure that my connection looks much better on the last wrap but she clearly thought it was.

Turn 2 – Decided we should try the exit line for backside slices (aka where I almost lost Kaladin at the end of his Snooker run that morning – and yes the courses were surprisingly roomy for USDAA courses – they were designed by Rebecca Hill but judged locally by a combination of Carol Voelker, Meredith & Cody Keraga)

The exit line (with handy bungee tug fur lotus toy) worked for her to know which side of me to exit on. She was pretty aroused heading to the start line, but then surprised me with a quick sit after her shake when the leash came off. Then she was even patient enough to hold it while I sorted out which hand to put the toy in. Looks like I need to work more on independence going into the backside slice as I’m barely getting across the bar to the exit standard. I like the comparison of the 2nd & 3rd reps where on the 2nd rep I started to lose connection with her coming into the backside slice and she did the start of a small boing. Then on the 3rd rep I kept the connection and it was so much smoother.

[Julie Heller]

Thx for the great feedback (as always).

That too high dog-side arm totally bit me this morning at the USDAA trial in Jumpers. Super simple jump on his line out of a curved tunnel followed by another jump and then a BC to get a slight turn to the left for the jump after that. I had my dog-side arm too high as he was exiting the tunnel and turned my back so that I could run to the BC and he came inside the jump (between me and the standard).

Here’s his P3 Snooker run – only dog in Masters/P3 to get 4- 7s for 59pts (7 was the jump & and the 10ft tunnel). I was thinking hard about the brake arm and the exit line with all the wraps. I don’t think I had enough decel around 0:18 because I could see him think about a RC to the right and then he did the wrap to the left (it’s hard to see on the video but I remember seeing that slight flinch to the right before he decided I really wanted a left wrap). The exit arm totally saved me around 0:30 after the late FC on 7a when we were heading across the ring to #2 (yellow jump). 2 was bi-directional so I pushed him to the back to avoid a threadle going to 3. Did a backside slice on 7a (purple jump between the 2 tunnels) because he’d already done a backside wrap for me at 5. I was out of his way and going past the exit standard as he was landing, but forgot the exit arm so my back was to him as I was running to the last tunnel so he was drifting out to the off-course jump behind me when I squeaked and got the exit arm in there and he’s like -Oh – just kidding! Wanted to see if you were paying attention hooman!

[Julie Heller]

Kaladin – Exit Line Sequences – 2/22/26
This was from last Sunday but I’m just getting around to posting now.
Exit line seq 2 – I was trying to also use the brake arm on #4 (the spin) but realized my right arm was going from being the exit line arm as he turned on 3 and then the brake arm approaching 4. I wasn’t sure if I should move it back to a more neutral spot or leave it across my body approaching 4. Left it there for the 1rst try and it went well. Tried moving it back to neutral and then using it as a brake arm on the 2nd try, but then forgot the decel and he did a lovely RC to the left as I was spinning and expecting him to go right. 3rd time we got the correct direction but he drifted a bit wide on the exit of the spin.

Did seq 4 – The spin really tightened up his line to the tunnel. I’m not sure if it would have made sense to try a brake arm going into #4 but I had enough to keep track of with an exit line after the FC and then the spin. Then we took a break and when I took him out again I did se 4 again but tacked on a backside wrap after the tunnel. Looks like the brake arm was late, but I think it did help him drive around the wrap better than he usually does on these.

Lift – exit line seq – 2/22/26
Got the turn to the left with her too while I was spinning right. Also struggled with the timing of the FC to make sure she took the jump, but then I was late so she took a bit of dive trying to respond to the turn the first time.

2:12 was her 2nd session after Kaladin & Reacher took turns – and the FC was much better. I haven’t done very many spins with her but apparently it made an impression and she was almost too tight on the turn. I liked the backside wrap at the end. I was thinking about the brake arm as she was catching up, but she was past me by the time my arm actually moved.

As you can see, she still has some feelings about lining up, but she has been getting better and I think what is helping is our new routine at meal times. After the teenage sport dog webinar, I was thinking about training in stae and considering how to get her amped up more if I was at home and then it popped into my mind that I should re-frame my frustration at her impatient behavior (barking, spinning, boining, circling the table) at meal times and take it as a training opportunity to work on behaviors while in arousal. I started with asking for spins since motion is easier and then added in a sit cue right after. Sometimes it’s too much and she can’t, but she’s getting a lot better and I’m seeing some of that improvement in the ring too. Her brian juice still runs out after a few line-ups so I mix in tossing a treat to start too.

I was going to post a short clip from Kaladin’s class on Tuesday where there were some good opportunities to use the brake arm on wraps, but when I watched it, I realized that my exit line was good, but I wasn’t getting the brake arm in there even though that was my plan. Then I accidentally deleted the video (after editing it to the wrap bits – figures!)

Kaladin is trialing in USDAA this weekend and Lift gets some Fusion ring time tomororw afternoon.

[Julie Heller]

Lift says thank you so much for straightening her hooman out…again!

So the 1 jump wraps with brake arm was working so well for us because the brake arm was forcing me to stay connect to her (even if I feel like my rib cage might need an adjustment to run that way!)

And following the logic – Disconnection is causing the boing. Rotating too early also raises red flags in her brain (the 2:40 example in the 2/21 video). I’m not sure if I have a good answer on the decel part of it. I was thinking she was protesting decel too early/too much, but maybe it was disconnection? I guess I need to see if I can decel a bit for the transition, while verbal cuing and brake arm cueing to keep the connection, all while not rotating too early. And by early I think we mean in relation to when she is making the decision to take off and not necessarily me being close to the jump – because I definitely need to be able to (eventually) send her out for wraps without escorting her all the way to the jump.

[Julie Heller]

Oh it’s so nice to be back in a camp again!

Lift & Boings-
Theres’s a bit of it at 2:40 on her brake arm sequences video from 2/21 where she starts to come off the jump and towards me as I am cueing the wrap.

Then there’s this spectacular kangaroo moment from class about a month ago when I was trying to get a backside wrap.

I’m not finding video from other classes, but I felt like it was happening because I was transitioning into a decel before the jump wrap.

I do have this clip from the Stefanie Rainer seminar last month where I got a boing on a RC. We placed a toy on her exit later and it didnt’ happen, but not sure if that was because of the place target, better execution on my part or because she had seen this part of the sequence before.

In a lot of cases I feel like it happens when we have a longer run at or more time on apporach to the jump and we’re both just thinking too much about the upcoming turn (whether FC wrap, RC turn, whatever) and then my transition is not what she is expecting/wants and the boing comes out. The times when she RC-ed to the right instead of wrapping left – I was delaying my decel because I thought if I did it sooner, she would turn into me and then boing.
Or maybe it’s just a bit of her liking to run on extension lines and protesting a bit when she has to turn (whether she’s doing much collecting or not). She’s got power steering for sure, but she’s also pretty twitchy at times – of course other times she charges down her line with complete confidence and I feel like she probably wouldn’t pull off the next obstacle even if I stood on my head. Like this from class last week where she drove out almost 40ft to the jump on her line because I told her to Go when I should have been cueing a left turn.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by Julie Heller.

[Julie Heller]

Week 1 – Brake Arm on Wraps & Exit Lines – 2/21/26

Thanks so much for releasing the week 1 games a few days early. Kristin and I had a great time this morning. It was hard, but we kept to short sessions and stopped ourselves from going too far before getting your expert feedback. This is going to be a long post, but don’t worry – I’ve got less time to focus on this course later on so they won’t always be a novel. A few days ago I could see 2/3 of the grass in my backyard and I was thinking I might be able to do some of this outdoors with low jumps, but then we got 6in of snow later that day…so maybe not!

I mixed in the brake arm with the exit lines a bit since the exit lines are not new to either dog. I have occasionally done a brake arm for Kaladin as he heads into a tunnel when there’s a shart turn on the exit but I don’t think I consistently used the opposite arm for that (might have been both hands down to the ground…) No surprise – neither dog needed the in-your-face brake arm.

Kaladin – 1 jump warm-up
He already has pretty tight wraps (when they are cued in time), but I do think the brake arm tightened it up a bit more. First one was brilliant. 2nd one he was brilliant even though I used the inside arm and had the toy in the wrong hand! (also – he’s just not as into chasing long dangling toys so I used his favorite frizzer. I think I was late on the rotation for the lead out FCs and that he was more turning on my lateral position.

Kaladin – 1 jump backside wrap
This was the start of his 2nd rep (after a break for Reacher & Lift). Kristen and I were trying to figure out the mechanics of the brake arm for the backside circle wrap and remembered that the brake arm waits until after the dog goes past you, but was I pointing in the right place to the landing side of his wrap? First time he collected so much and actually clunked the bar with his back legs (unusual for him but I think he was sensing that I wasnt’ quite sure what I was doing)

Then we rolled into some of the sequences.
First rep – his natural path out of the tunnel had him drifting to the left side of the jump (from video prespective), but he really angled across the bar for a tight wrap to the left. 2nd rep -intended to turn to the outside on 3 and was using his wrap right (check check) cue but he clearly thought I might have meant threadle wrap (which week are those? we need more work there for sure!) Rep around 1:09 – he drifted out a bit to the outside but then angled back for a tight wrap to the right. Is my execution of the brake arm causing him to drift out a bit? It could have also been his line out of the tunnel and he still read the wrap to the right well. Last rep -did a RC wrap to the left to compare to the one before where I did the brake arm into a spin.

Lift – Brake Arm/Exit Line 1-Jump
Lift’s turns were interesting (well- she is too for sure!). In the last few months she’s started having bigger feelings about wrapping jumps. I think it might have started after the seminar with you last August when I was trying harder to time cues better/earlier. It’s like she thought I was doing too much (or too soon) to decel and cue an upcoming wrap so she’d kangaroo up at me in proteste and either pull off the jump or boing and then wrap all while grumbling at me. We worked on placing the lotus ball on her line on the landing side and also some on her line after the wrap by the take off side. It helped some, but when I removed the dead toy, I’d get likely get another kangaroo moment. Lori Michaels was here for seminars last Friday and she noted that it seemed like Lift was chaining in the boing before wrap because I would reward her when she eventually wrapped (because not rewarding the effort usually doesn’t go over well with her either). So my plan was that if she boinged, I would either break it off, ask for a trick to reward her and try again. Or if it was a little boing and then she popped over the jump to wrap, I would keep running and reward after she did something else. I was pretty sure that adding a brake arm to Ms “I dont’ need no stinking help on this stoopid wrap thing”, would bring out her inner kangaroo so of course her 1 jump work in the first rep was full of smooth tight wraps.

I started her off with the lead out FC for the exit line thinking that would ease her into the wraps later. Looks like I was rotating about the same time she was taking off so that would account for why she landed straight but was looking left and accelerated to the left to chase me. 2nd time I dont’ think my timing was much better but she read my lateral leadout and landed lighter as she turned left. The wraps went surprisingly well (no back talk from her). I think my 2nd BC leadout was timed better as she was landing heading towards the new side -although in both of them she didnt’ question which side to drive to.

2nd turn -brake arm sequences
So this was interesting -She was reading my brake arm to wrap left as a RC wrap right – twice! At the time I thought maybe she thought I was starting to drive the diagonal line, but I can see in the video that I am heading straight to the inside wing. I am also using “dig dig” for wrap left as she executes lovely tight wraps to the right. You can see how her line up for the 2nd try involved a bit of a debate after the 1rst one which was so lovely. Then broke it down and did a wrap to the left on the 1 jump but no brake arm -she read that was a wrap to the left. Then I decided to go the other direction – used the brake arm and she wrapped to the right beautifully. Went back to the original direction but did the outside wrap to the right – brake arm & spin – no issues. Did a backside circle wrap to the left with brake arm and it was lovely even if I was disorganized about which hand the toy was in. Then got the weird RC to the right again and disconnected from her while my brain was processing so then she demonstrated what she’s been doing when she protests wraps where she cuts in towards me as I am cueing it, does a boing and then wraps the jump. (2:40) – so thoughtful of her to not make me go find other video evidence of it to share with you. She gave 4 paws up for tunnel-tunnel in a straight line and the tossed toy to end.

Note -I did crop bits where she was busy getting her turkey out of the lotus tug, but kept in other parts of the transitions for your viewing pleasure.

[Julie Heller]

It helps to have a Sheltie for the food reward box since they are so good at scarfing down small treats quickly. LOL!

And that troll trail was pretty fun. We ended up going back to part of it later because we realized we had missed finding Rocky (the one caught out in the sunlight) and the tree trolls the first time around.

Will add chair weaves for Kaladin and Find my Face for Lift. She was pretty good at it when done outside of the context of agility and when I did it with 1 jump but then we got busy traing other things. So I should refresh her memory of it without obstacles and then start adding it in after I do late/confusing handling?

The pattern games help her alot and we use them as part of our warm up for classes & trials and in general, but she still has trouble coping with movement going past her when we aren’t doing them. (like entering the ring for a trial when I can’t toss treats for back & forth but the bar setters are moving back to their chairs or the leash runner is moving)

[Julie Heller]

Hi!
Catching up while on vacation in SW Wisconsin. Lovely little cozy airbnb cabin at this Norskedalen Nordic heritage property that has lots of trails right outside our front door.

Yes – Kaladin has never liked accelerating ahead of me to the poles, especially when it is an angled entry. We saw that on the “DW in the way” games earlier. I probably should have used the 15ft tunnel, but I downsized to 10ft since I had 6 poles. I didn’t get a chance to circle back to the game last week given the general chaos of us getting organized to leave town on Thursday AM.

And speaking of weave poles, Kristin and I were talking and she pointed out that the Fusion poles have some extra bases near the connection between the 2 sets of 6 and she thinks that is what is throwing Reacher off there. So we’re going to do a weave pole swap where Kristin tries my PVC set to let Reacher practice with more feet on the base and I get 3 sets of her 2x2s so that I can build Lift up to 12 poles on similar base poles. Then we’ll swap back and I’ll work with Lift on my PVC set separately from building her up to 12. (or maybe we will have snow by then and I’ll have to work on her weaves indoors at Fusion)

Fusion UKI trial last weekend –
Kaladin was his usual brilliant self even if he was 1 a-frame contact away from IAC 11 (or whatever number Agility Blender says he is up to. He has oodles of Jumping and Games Qs, but needs 1 more point from Agility). He did 2 lovely DWs though! I was concentrating on my timing and was able to see during the run & via video how the spots where I was a bit late was where he drifted a bit wide. And I still have grabbing some a-frame examples of him on my list of things to do (which may or may not happen tomorrow after we go hike the “Troll Trail” and pose Shelties next to cute little Troll figurines).

Ms Lift got to run 2 classes NFC on Saturday in the middle of the day. The weather was lovely (upper 60s/low 70s perfect for an outdoor trial so figures that we had an indoor one with A/c – but it was in August so it seemed like a good plan to plunk a Fusion trial down at the end of August!) so she got to hang out in the crate in my car when she wasn’t running (Show manager perk – I get there early and grab the nice spot that is shaded all day).

I am really happy with her Novice jumping run. I made up my own course that let her open up more and pratice layering. (Courtney’s course was pretty nice but it did have a tighter turn back after jump 2 to head off to the weaves so I changed that since I was going to skip the weaves anyways). I am especially proud of myself for cueing the tunnel-tunnel layer jump line without any Giraffing! (it’s now a verb!) I had warned Courtney about our path but forgot to give the leash runner the heads up but luckily Shelley realized we were going to run right by her into the reward box so we didnt’ run her over.

Then we ran Nov Snooker NFC and Courtney nicely called out numbers for practice even when Lift added bonus obstacles and I purposely put in an extra red jump since it was on our line to 2 in the closing. Really late BC going to the 3rd red started her kangaroo tendencies. Then we got straightend out and both got too excited on the last line where she tried to extend for 2 strides in a 25ft distance between 7B & 7C and took off way too early and crashed 7C (It was a Tari kind of moment._ Before you watch the video, let me say that 1) she’s going to be fine. I scratched her Sunday runs and left her at home and then Dr Julia was able to see her on Tuesday where she put parts of her back in alignment and cleared her for our light hiking vacay as long as we did her stretches. She also sees Michelle for massage on Wed and Dr Julia thought she would be good to go back to playing agility after that assuming Michelle doesn’t find anything concerning. 2) Courtney let us do the last line again and Lift wisely did 3 strides between the #7 jumps on that line. Overjumped a bit but confidently drove ahead of me. 3) you can’t see it well in the video but man was she pissed at the jump bar. She glared at it and I thought she might try to bite it.
I thought that maybe she decided to leave the stride out because I had lost my connection to her but I am still looking back at her when she made that decision. Unless it was my starting to turn forward right as she hit the end of her 2nd stride?

Circling back to earlier posts.
I remembered the other reason why I wasn’t going to enter Lift in the October ISC trial. I still need to register her with AKC! I just haven’t bothered yet since she’s Canadian which makes it expensive and a nuisance since I need to find her pedigree.

I did start her on the Purina CalmCare when we got back from the seminar. Did a half dose for a few days incase her stomach had issues with it and then moved her to the full dose Friday a week ago. Too early to see a difference, but I want to see if she settles down on that before I take her to an AKC trial. Right now I feel like I would need to carry her around a lot and into the ring so that she doesn’t rehearse any bad behavior of lunging at movement during transition times. Given the more charged environment at AKC Trials and my own concerns about being in that environement, I don’t think putting her in the ring at an AKC trial makes sense at this point.
Oh and side note, I asked Dr Julia about why there is only 1 dosage size for the CalmCare and she said something about how small and large dogs have about the same length of intestine by surface area – the smaller dogs have more folds in their intestines to fit it into their bodies.

[Julie Heller]

Games 5 – Weaves 8/21/25
Definitely should have started with the weaves further from the tunnel. (So much better that way when I came back at the end of the day to try it that way)
Lift

Kaladin
Surprisingly had trouble getting the tunnel…maybe because he had less momentum going into it? When these things come up on course he loves sailing out to the tunnel

[Julie Heller]

Yes! I was really impressed with Ms Lift doing her drills right away in a new place. I think it helped that it was a quieter seminar environment with less people and she got a short walk through the ring to check it out during setup but still. Yay her!

Oh she’s sailed over a few of Kaladin’s 12 in jumps when we were outside playing and they got in her way! I think she was more worried about 10 and 12in in the context of the grid than if it pops up on a course. I can start putting some jumps at 10in when it’s easy and see what she thinks.

UKI – yes you can put things on the ground and I have held the teeter for the elevator game before. I checked with the judge to confirm but they were fine with that. I can’t put her target on the end of the teeter though so we’ll have to have that faded.

AKC ISC – I could put her in J1 and make something up. Maybe even run it without a toy or I’ll forget and throw it and get in trouble.

Sadly it’s USDAA and then UKI outdoors at Animal Inn so no reward box first. She does like running after a frizzer but doesn’t have great skills to bring it back so if I use that at Animal Inn I will probably spend my whole time trying to get it back after the first throw. (she’s only into tugging on a frizzer when we are walking back inside after playing for a while – not in the context of grabbing it after doing an agility thing)

Does the Master Class just run for a year after you sign up?

[Julie Heller]

The seminars were so much fun! I recovered enough to set up the weave challenge drill this morning and tried it with both dogs, but need to get the videos uploaded. (I ended up printing all the UKI trial materials tonight instead of that)

Jump grids – I agree about dropping the adjustable grids for Lift. I can do some other grids that aren’t straight since I she doesn’t do the weird right-drift if she’s turning and sprinkle in the jumping toolbox stuff for the slice jumping. I’m not in any rush to get her comfortable jumping 12in. She’s running perf 8in for now when we do USDAA and I might just leave her there for it. Eventually I’d like to do AKC ISC with her so she’ll be a 12in dog there, but I’m in no rush. There’s a day of ISC locally at OTR in mid-October that I will enter Kaladin in, but probably won’t enter Lift. I would need to feel that 12 poles are solid for her and we haven’t gone beyond 6 yet (I need to find another set of 6 to borrow – figures that a local equipment FB group had a post about 3 sets of 2x2s about an hour after we chatted about that but someone beat me to them.) Plus there’s no food reward box at AKC and I can’t throw a toy.

Speaking of NFC/FEO & food reward boxes: I’ve got a series of trials coming up soon and am not sure what I want to do with her at them. I started her on the Calming probiotics earlier this week, but am expecting that will take several weeks (I think Purina said up to 6weeks) to see how it affects her (fingers crossed that it really helps). She loves her lotus ball or fur tug when it has food in it, but she’s not into a plain toy reward at home most of the time much less in public. She’s not quite ready to try 6 weave poles at a trial even if we had a class with them (maybe snooker occasionally?). She’s doing great with the “going down” teeter games (it’s almost horizontal) so we’ll start the elevator game soon, but I havent’ started on fading the target on the plank yet so I’m not expecting that we’ll be doing elevator games in public for a while.

This weekend is Fusion UKI (has the reward box) where she is entered in 2 classes each day (strategically picked to be later in the day so she has time or Dean can drop her off later in the day) She’s in Jumping & Snooker on Saturday & Jumping & SS on Sunday (Courtney Moore is judging). She’s 5pts away from her Novice SS title so I think I am going to NFC SS even if it’s a perfect course for her since I don’t want her in Senior yet. For all of the classes, I’m waffling on whether I should try a short course with no toy and then run out for a party or if I should do a few short sequences and use the reward box (either with or without a toy as a marker).

Then we have a hiking vacation. And then I’ve got the MAC USDAA Trial followed by the MAC UKI Trial. Both are outdoors in Animal Inn’s fenced ring and she’s entered in 2 classes on 1 day for each of them so she’ll stay home the other day to decompress. (I’m chairing the UKI one and I’m the Board liaison for the USDAA so I’m there both days with Kaladin). The UKI one has the reward box so I’ll probably use that since outdoors is still harder for her. For USDAA I can run FEO but I’m not sure how much it benefits her for me to throw a toy which she will chase but probably not pick up and then run to her leash and out. I think if I throw a toy with no food in it more than once in public, she’s going to start to get really pissed. She’s in P1 Jprs & Snkr for USDAA so chances are it’s all jumps and tunnels.

After that flurry of trials, she’s got 6 weeks off and then there’s UKI at Fusion near the end of October. Then probably another 6 weeks off for her since she’s definitely not coming to the Open. So the Fall is definitely going to be mainly about working on contacts & weaves with some jumping exercises mixed in. I saw that Shape Up has their RDW level 2 class starting up in mid-Sept and I am considering auditing it.

What do you have planned for the Fall/Winter?

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